Imagining Golf’s Majors Without Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods

April 6, 2013

Sports of The Times

By DAVE ANDERSON

Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods — you can’t have one without the other. As the Masters approaches, they embody a golf question for the ages. You can’t discuss Jack’s record 18 major titles without wondering if Tiger, who has 14, will surpass him.

But what if neither had ever played on the PGA Tour? Don’t laugh. Had each taken an exit ramp on the highway to dominating golf, it might have happened.

What if Nicklaus had pursued a career as a pharmacist, as his father, Charlie, did in Columbus, Ohio? Jack was a pharmacy major at Ohio State. Or what if he had enjoyed selling insurance and had remained an amateur golfer — as his idol Bobby Jones had — instead of joining the 1962 tour as the two-time United States Amateur champion?

What if Earl Woods, a career Army officer stationed at Fort Hamilton in Brooklyn, had not been seduced by golf when he played for the first time at the Dyker Beach municipal course in the early ‘70s? What if, a few years later, he had inspired his son, Eldrick, whom he nicknamed Tiger, to play baseball?

Without Jack and Tiger, what would golf be like now? Not as much fun to watch or talk about, that’s for sure.

As to which golfers would have won those 32 majors that Jack and Tiger own, all we know for sure is who finished second or tied for second. Those runners-up would not necessarily have claimed the titles. Without Jack or Tiger in the mix, the other contenders might have hit different shots with different results.

Of those who were or shared second, Arnold Palmer would have benefited the most. He was runner-up to Nicklaus at the 1962 and 1967 United States Opens, and tied for second with Gary Player in the 1965 Masters. Over all, Palmer would have won three United States Opens and maybe a fifth Masters in a playoff with Player, to accompany his two British Opens for 9 or maybe 10 majors.

Had Player won a 1965 Masters playoff with Palmer, he would have had 10 majors: four Masters, one United States Open, three British Opens and two P.G.A. Championships.

Without Nicklaus and Woods, Jones would be the career leader with 13 majors: four United States Opens, three British Opens, five United States Amateurs and one British Amateur in an era when those amateur events were majors. Walter Hagen, a Jones rival, would be next with 11 majors: two United States Opens, four British Opens and five P.G.A. titles.

Had Raymond Floyd won a 1978 British Open playoff with Ben Crenshaw, Tom Kite and Simon Owen, instead of losing to Nicklaus, he would have completed a rare career Grand Slam with his 1986 United States Open for a total of five, including the 1976 Masters and two P.G.A. titles.

Of the other Nicklaus challengers, Bruce Crampton would have had three majors, if not four. He was second in the 1972 United States Open, second at the 1973 and 1975 P.G.A.’s, and shared second with Tom Weiskopf and Bobby Mitchell at the 1972 Masters.

Weiskopf, who won the 1973 British Open, also tied for second at the 1975 Masters with Johnny Miller, who won the 1973 United States Open and the 1976 British.

Doug Sanders, who never won a major, was second in the 1970 British Open and shared second at the 1966 British Open. Billy Casper, who won two United States Opens and the 1970 Masters, would have added the 1971 P.G.A. Greg Norman, who won two British Opens, shared second with Kite at the 1986 Masters, which Nicklaus won at 46.

Of those who have challenged Woods, Chris DiMarco, who hasn’t won a major, would have won the 2005 Masters and the 2006 British Open.

Ernie Els, with two United States Opens and two British Opens, might have won two others for a total of six. He shared second twice in 2000, with Miguel Ángel Jiménez at the United States Open and with Thomas Bjorn at the British.

Kite bridged the two eras. He shared second behind Nicklaus at the 1978 British Open and the 1986 Masters before winning the 1992 United States Open; he was second to Woods at the 1997 Masters.

Oddly, Phil Mickelson, with three Masters and one P.G.A., finished second five times in the United States Open, but only once to Woods, in 2002 at Bethpage Black. Another quirk: two of Nicklaus’s most persistent rivals, Watson and Trevino, never finished or shared second behind Nicklaus in a major.

Others who haven’t won a major but finished second to Woods include Sergio García in the 1999 P.G.A., Bob May in the 2000 P.G.A., Colin Montgomerie in the 2005 British Open, Rocco Mediate in their 2008 United States Open playoff, and Woody Austin in the 2007 P.G.A.

But what-ifs don’t count. The awful truth for all those second-place golfers in those 32 majors is that they did not win. Just as Jack Nicklaus did not become a pharmacist or a career amateur, and just as Tiger Woods did not grow up playing baseball.